At the scene deployed additional forces of the Ministry of emergency situations, yesterday one hundred employees of the Siberian rescue center arrived from Novosibirsk. Arrived rescue squad “Gazprom oil”. It is composed of rescuers and specialists from Khanty-Mansiysk, Megion, Noyabrsk and Saint Petersburg. This being moved by the transport aircraft specialized equipment, including oil collection and pumping equipment, excavators, booms, as well as tent cities and Autonomous systems engineering.
By this time, river Barn features five rows of booms. According to the commander of the marine rescue service Alexander Lobach, collected all the fuel, to reach this section of the river.
the Local authorities, who saw finally their own eyes the scale of the environmental disaster, recognize that the damage is significant. But this is, in their opinion, the resulting 161 21 thousand ton of diesel fuel, and the fact that the company of NTPC and the city administration of Norilsk late “informed the regional center, a response system, as well as the main Department of EMERCOM of Russia about the disaster”.
Representatives of “Norilsk Nickel” say the opposite: “We all promptly alerted about the incident”.
Who is right – will be found out by law enforcement agencies. Has four criminal cases. Three initiated under article 254 (land damage), article 246 (violation of rules of protection of the environment by manufacture of works) and article 250 of the criminal code of Russian Federation (pollution of waters). The Prosecutor General’s office of them joined in one proceeding and transferred to the Investigative Committee.
the Fourth opened yesterday on the fact of negligence for failure to inform about the incident. Arrested Vyacheslav Starostin, head of Department CHP-3, in whose jurisdiction was the oil tank. The court placed him into custody until July 31, 2020.
the newspaper managed to collect a chronicle of events. It is. The first reports on may 29 about the incident in Norilsk did not indicate the scale of the ecological disaster.
they reported, in particular: “In the region of 13.00 depressurization of the fuel tank № 5 at CHP-3 of JSC “Norilsk fuel and energy company” (NTEC). The resulting fire spread across an area of 600 square meters. The firefighters quickly cut off the flame from the reservoir and localized fire. There were no injuries. The causes of the fire are being investigated. Neither the Nadezhda metallurgical plant, nor the Kayerkan settlement, the fire didn’t hurt”.
the evening of the same day there was the release of the press service of the Norilsk city Prosecutor’s office, which said that the Supervisory authority has received a report of a spill of diesel fuel on the carriageway of the access road to the industrial area of CHPP-3 and that on this road there was a fire of the car. Here reported��s that the employees of NTPC have initiated measures to clean up the area. How much spilled diesel fuel – no data.
Saturday, June 30, in social networks already there video from the event and news agencies – information that from the tank spilled at least 20 thousand tons of diesel fuel.
the Figure was surprised, it’s still peteducation 400 railway tanks!
on Sunday, may 31, came the first reports from environmentalists – the alarm sounded by WWF Russia in the area of oil spill – catchment of the Unnamed Creek, rivers Daldykan and the Barn: “potekshego From the reservoir to the river Barn about 12 kilometers, and by the morning of may 31, the fuel was already in the river.” From there to lake Pyasino about 20 kilometers.
it Became clear: the reason for the disaster was not the notorious car. The tank served for more than 30 years, does not suddenly just “flowed” he actually burst. Suddenly sagged, pillars which have been installed and the building between the wall and the bottom formed in the closure channel.
June 1, Norilsk arrived detachment of the marine rescue service of Murmansk – 15 professionals who have extensive experience in spill prevention.
a Decision on how to address the fuel spill was found. This statement was made yesterday by the Minister of EMERCOM of Russia Evgeny Senichev at a meeting on the results of the overflight of the affected area in Norilsk.
the Minister did not elaborate on what decision it is. But we know exactly what to burn the collected fuel will not. Given that rescuers may 29, the day of the accident, managed to collect more than a hundred tons of spilled oil, we are talking about an integrated approach. By the way, the first report of the oil spill, citing emergency services arrived exactly on the morning of may 29.
“At 9.15 (GMT), according to IDC, in the region of the Nadezhda metallurgical plant on the territory of CHPP-3 passenger car drove into the tank No. 5 for the storage of diesel fuel, causing depressurization of the tank and ignition of fuel” – this was the first TASS.
Immediately on the scene firefighters arrived. In two municipalities of the Krasnoyarsk region was introduced a state of emergency intermunicipal level. And all the events since may 29, the days passed with reference to the press service of the regional Central Board MOE. Why information about the accident is not on the Federal level, now we can only guess.
Usually spilled fuel products staff spas-centers were collected from the overturned freight trains. For example, in 2012 in Rybinsk reservoir was nearly hit fuel from the freight cars on the railroad in the direction of Vologda. Derailed 13 cars. In the same year at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur had to eliminate the accident capsized with 7 tanks. Several years earlier, in Rayo��e of the sea of Azov were removed from the waters of the big spot of spilled petroleum products.
But the most serious test of the professionalism of the rescue units of the EMERCOM took place in 2009, the liquidation of the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP.
Then, in the Yenisei has got a huge amount of transformer oil and subordinates Sergey Shaposhnikov, who then headed the Department of civil protection of EMERCOM of Russia, had to put booms and pump out the oil in special tanks and then to take out in difficult to access conditions.
Now the conditions in Norilsk similar to that of the Sayano-Shushenskiy, except for the fact that lost a lot of time and diesel fuel since the accident spilled down from 80 square kilometres, as it was then, and 180.
There is now in the system of the Ministry of emergency situations and determine the most effective division, which was responsible for the elimination of such accidents. A couple of years ago the Department of civil defence was disbanded.
But remained life-saving technology that developed over the years. This is primarily the recovery of spilled oil with the help of fences.
Given that in this case not spilled bitumen or oil, and diesel, the rescuers are special sorbents. Diesel fuel – and we are talking about it, not on furnace oil, which worked for the old CHP – more toxic than oil, and contains such compounds that are not completely may be trapped by the booms. So rescuers, who arrived by plane from Novosibirsk rescue team, in contaminated surface will have to add chemicals on the basis of activated carbon, silica gel, aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide, various ion-exchange resins and peat. They selectively absorb hazardous solute. They can be used not only to collect diesel fuel from the surface of the water, but from land and swamps.
it will have to build a temporary road to these substances-adsorbents there to bring, and then partially contaminated soil taken to the recycling sites. Diesel fuel in a polar region does not decompose for three to four years, as crude oil. So we have to make a waterproof platform, which will store contaminated soils.
Prepared Timofei Borisov
a Spill of 20 thousand tons of diesel fuel from on-shore storage in Norilsk comparable to the scale of the disaster and the damage caused from the accident of the tanker Exxon Valdez off the coast of Alaska 30 years ago. Then in the sea has poured out more than 40 thousand tons of oil, the area of surface contamination in excess of 28 thousand square kilometers, oil-flooded about 2 thousand kilometers of the coastline.
such insights tend Russian environmentalists and international experts. According to Rosprirodnadzora, in samples at the scene found above the MCL in tens of thousands of times. Strataina layer of oil from booms on the rivers – up to 20 inches, and the plume of contamination stretches for 20 kilometers. According to candidate of technical Sciences Ivan Block, the environmental damage of water facilities on the Taimyr Peninsula may exceed 6 billion rubles, and this is excluding damage to the soil and emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere. Something similar happened in 1994, the oil pipeline in the Komi Republic. Reclamation continued (according to reports) ten years.
Prepared by Alexander Emelianenko
